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CHRISTOPHER DODD

"Every
American deserves to live in freedom, to have his or her privacy
respected and a chance to go as far as their ability and effort will
take them - regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or economic
circumstances." - Christopher Dodd

Statistics
-

CAMPAIGN
SLOGAN: "LEADERSHIP - When America Needs It Most."

FULL
NAME: Christopher John Dodd

DATE
OF BIRTH: May 27, 1944

AGE:
63

ASTROLOGICAL
SIGN: Gemini

SPOUSE:
Jackie Marie Clegg

CHILDREN:
Grace and Christina

PETS:
None due to allergies

RESIDENCE:
East Haddam, CT

RELIGION:
Latin
Rite Catholic

PROFESSION:
Attorney

ALTERNATE
CAREER CHOICE: Teacher

FAVORITE
BOOK/LAST READ: The Broker

FAVORITE
FOOD TO COOK/EAT: Lobster, corn & tomatoes

TALENTS: Speaks
Spanish fluently

FAVORITE
FITNESS ACTIVITY: Cross training, tennis, biking

WORST
HABIT: Running late

LAST
MUSIC PURCHASE: Soundtrack
to Jersey Boys

QUICK
FACT: Chris, known as the “Children’s Senator” in Congress and
named the “Senator of
the Decade” by the National Head Start Association, formed the
first Children’s Caucus in the Senate and spent seven years working to
enact the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Christopher John
Dodd is an American lawyer and
politician
from Willimantic, Connecticut and is a member of the Democratic
Party.Dodd served as the U.S.
Representative from Connecticut from 1975 until 1981, when he became a U.S.
Senator. He has been Connecticut's senior
Senator since 1989. Dodd is fluent in Spanish
and is a Latin
Rite Catholic.

Dodd was born in Willimantic,
Connecticut.
His parents, Grace Mary Murphy and Senator Thomas
Joseph Dodd were Irish-Americans;
all eight of his great-grandparents were born in Ireland.Dodd attended
Georgetown
Preparatory School, a Jesuit
boys school in Bethesda,
Maryland, and graduated with a bachelor's
degree in English
Literature from Providence
College in 1966.Dodd served as a Peace
Corps volunteer in a small rural town in the Dominican
Republic until 1968, then joined the U.S.
Army Reserve, where he would stay until 1975.In July 1970, he
married Susan Mooney, later divorcing in late 1982.In 1972, Dodd earned a
Juris
Doctor at the University
of Louisville, where he served as vice president of the law school's
student body. The following year, he was admitted
to the Connecticut bar, and began practicing law in New
London.

Dodd lives in East
Haddam, when Congress
is not in session, with his wife Jackie and their two daughters, Grace and
Christina. Dodd married Jackie Marie Clegg in June 1999. She held high posts at
the Export-Import
Bank of the United States. He is the godfather of
actress/singer Christy
Carlson Romano, who once interned in his office. His brother, Thomas J.
Dodd Jr., is an emeritus professor of the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown
University, and served as U.S. ambassador to Uruguay
and Costa
Rica under president Bill
Clinton.

The Dodd Pod is the
official name of Chris Dodd's Apple iPod. It is
unknown when or where Dodd acquired the Pod; however, it has become a part
of his quest for the Democratic nomination for President.
According to a statement on the Senator's campaign website, the idea was
presented to him by friends and family, who sought to provide Dodd with a
'song or message of the day.' Dodd took to the idea, as he states that he
loves to use his iPod to "listen to music, books on tape, and podcasts."One unique feature of
the Dodd Pod is that Dodd allows visitors to his website to submit their own
requests for the playlist. The playlist is available at the official Dodd
Pod page.

Dodd was part of the
"Watergate
class of '74" which David
Gergen credited with bringing "a fresh burst of liberal energy to
the Capitol."
Elected to the U.S.
House of Representatives from Connecticut's second congressional
district, and reelected twice, he served from January
4, 1975 to January
3, 1981.
During his tenure in the U.S. House, he served on the House
Select Committee on Assassinations.Dodd was elected to
the U.S. Senate in the 1980
election and was subsequently reelected in four more elections. He is the first Senator from Connecticut to serve five
consecutive terms. From 1995 to 1997, he served as General Chairman of the Democratic
National Committee. As General Chairman, Dodd was the DNC's spokesman. Donald
Fowler served as National Chairman, running the party's day to day
operations.

Senator Dodd's issue
positions are generally ranked left of center. His rankings from Americans
for Democratic Action have been 95% and above since 2000. Similarly,
Dodd receives low ratings from conservative groups, such as the John
Birch Society, the American
Conservative Union, and the Christian
Coalition of America.

Dodd voted in favor of
the Iraq
War Resolution in 2002 but has since become an opponent of the
war. Dodd has said the Iraq
War has been waged “for all the wrong reasons” and that it is
eroding both the nation's
security and its moral leadership.Dodd has criticized
his congressional colleagues for failing to be more forceful in challenging
President Bush's Iraq
War troop surge of 2007. "This was debating about debating. This
was the House and the Senate at some of its worst. ... I think we missed an
opportunity to put our foot down and stop [the surge]."In May 2007, he voted
in the Senate against continued funding for the Iraq war.He was the only
2008
presidential candidate to co-sponsor the Democrats' most aggressive
anti-war bill.

Dodd voted for the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and says that such agreements
have "...brought increased cooperation and communication. They have
been positive forces that promote political and economic stability, as well
as growth and democracy." In the same article he continues,
"successful efforts to achieve a Central
American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and eventually in 2005, a Free
Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), will help further these goals. As
well, the United States stands to benefit along with our neighbors from
increased trade relations throughout the hemisphere."

Senator Dodd is
considered left of center with respect to Latin America. His record
especially with regard to the Sandinistas
in Nicaragua
and the Farabundo
Martí rebels in El
Salvador has led to conflict with Republican administrations. He is
highly critical of the United
States embargo against Cuba. He favors more lenient U.S.
immigration laws. In January 2005, he met with Venezuelan
President Hugo
Chávez in an effort to mend the strained relations between the two
countries. Dodd stressed the need for closer ties, both economically and in
the fight
against terrorism and drug
trafficking. On that occasion, he said that Chávez has “demonstrated
he was Venezuela’s legitimate democratically elected president by winning
a national referendum (on August
15, 2004)…We
know there have been problems between the two countries, but today is a new
year and we are here to find out if we can begin a new relationship,”
adding, “It is not worthwhile to continue speaking of what is in the past.
I hope we can overcome this.”

Senator Dodd supported
the interests of the American
Civil Liberties Union between 60 and 80% of the time from 2000 to 2006.In 2004, he introduced a bill to enact a
Federal Shield law.Dodd, along with
Senators Patrick
Leahy, Russ
Feingold, and Robert
Menendez introduced the "Restoring the Constitution Act of
2007", which he claims "restores Habeas
Corpus rights, bars evidence gained through torture or coercion and
reinstates U.S. adherence to the Geneva
Conventions in order to protect the nation’s military personnel
abroad." The bill is supported by the American
Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty
International, Human
Rights Watch, Human
Rights First, The Center for Victims of Torture, Open Society Institute,
and Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International.

In the 108th
and 109th
Congress, Dodd voted against the proposed Federal
Marriage Amendment intended to ban same-sex
marriage in the United States.

Senator Dodd supported
the interests of the League
of Conservation Voters between 80 and 100% of the time from 1999 to
2006. Dodd has proposed a carbon
tax on corporations as a measure to reduce carbon
dioxide emissions and reduce global
warming.

Dodd proposes
mandatory community service for all high school students. A returned Peace
Corps Volunteer who served in the Dominican Republic, Dodd also proposes
doubling the size of the Peace Corps to 15,000 volunteers by 2011 and
expanding AmeriCorps to 1 million participants . Dodd says his goal is to
see 40 million people volunteering in some form by 2020.

Senator Dodd is
perhaps best known for bringing attention to children’s issues. He formed
the first children’s caucus in the Senate and spent almost a decade
fighting to enact the Family
and Medical Leave Act.He also authored
legislation aimed at providing better access to safe and affordable child
care. Dodd has received a 100% rating from the Children's
Defense Fund each year since 2000.

Dodd was one of 16
senators who voted against the Vitter
Amendment to prohibit federal funding of the confiscation of legally
owned firearms during a disaster

As a senior member of
the Senate committee responsible for health care, Chris Dodd has been a
voice for innovation in patient care. He was instrumental in extending
health insurance to 5 to 7 million of the nation’s uninsured children and
has consistently fought to support community health centers and initiatives
aimed at child nutrition, maternal and child health, and infant mortality
prevention. He successfully led the effort to modernize the Food and Drug
Administration approval process for drugs and medical devices, getting
innovative therapies to patients more quickly without compromising safety
and effectiveness. He authored critically important legislation to protect
the mentally ill from abusive and deadly restraint and seclusion practices
in mental hospitals. He continues to push for a patient’s bill of rights,
which would give Americans basic assurances in their health care services
and a greater right to choose their health care provider. And he is working
to enact new legislation to ensure that the medicines taken by consumers are
safe and effective.

The Dodd Plan To Restore
America’s Moral Authority

Strengthen our Alliances. As
President, Chris Dodd will work to restore our alliances, rebuild
international institutions to better fight the war against
terrorism, and enhance America’s security while upholding our
common values.

Diplomacy, Not More Troops in
Iraq. Chris Dodd is strongly opposed to the Bush-Cheney troop
surge strategy. As President, he will advance a surge of diplomacy
in the region, not a surge of more troops.

End the War in Iraq
Decisively. Chris Dodd understands that ending the war in Iraq
makes America safer. He strongly supports the Feingold-Reid
proposal – the only responsible measure in Congress that sets a
timetable to end the war in Iraq by March 31, 2008 – and he has
urged all the candidates in the presidential race to join him. It
is time to stand up to the President’s misguided Iraq policy.

Hold America’s Allies
Accountable. As President, Chris Dodd would engage key strategic
countries, nations like Saudi Arabia and Russia, and call on them
to support freedom and democracy in their own countries and to
eliminate the conditions that export terrorism and allow our
enemies to thrive.

Enhance and Export Energy
Technology to Free America and the World From Reliance On Oil.
Chris Dodd believes we need to invest in renewable energy
technology that will allow America to achieve energy independence.
As President, he would share that technology with our allies to
end their alliances of necessity with dictators from oil-producing
nations like Venezuela and Iran.

A Plan For Lower Costs, Better
Quality, Universal Access

Universal Responsibility:
Ensure universal affordable quality coverage by creating a Health
Care General Fund (HCGF) to serve all Americans. Then, require
employers to either cover their employees or contribute to the
fund. Individual Americans not covered by employers will be
required to purchase insurance from the HCGF at a price based on
his/her fixed percentage above poverty. With universal
responsibility, no American will be turned away.

Assisting Small Businesses:
Exempt businesses employing less than 10 workers from contributing
to the HCGF. Provide federal assistance to businesses employing
between 10 and 30 workers.

Focusing On Prevention:
Integrate clinical information tools, monitoring technologies, and
care management into the system, and encourage screenings, timely
visits to the doctor, and early treatments that keep chronic
diseases under control.

Building On What Works:
Extend Medicaid to adults who make 100 percent above the poverty
line and to children whose family’s income is up to 300 percent
of the poverty line.

Driving Down Costs: There is
enough money in the system to solve the health care crisis. We
will utilize 21st century technology to give hospitals
comprehensive diagnostic and treatment data, so as to avoid
duplicative and unnecessary treatment and services that waste
precious resources and drive up costs.

The Dodd Plan to Strengthen
America’s Schools

Universal Pre-School:
Guarantee that every 4-year-old child in this country will have
access to high-quality pre-school.

High Standards for All:
Develop and implement education standards that prepare all
students for success in the global economy. States will have the
capacity to voluntarily adopt these standards in exchange for
increased No Child Left Behind flexibility and increased funding.

Better Teachers, Better
Schools: Create powerful incentives for highly trained
teachers to teach at schools in need of improvement. These
incentives include increased salaries and free national board
certification.

The Dodd Plan to Create
Economic Opportunity

Restore Workers’ Freedom to
Form Unions. Chris Dodd believes the freedom to form a union is
one of our most fundamental rights. He will use the power of the
presidency to ensure that the right to organize is upheld and to
pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

Enhance the Family Medical
Leave Act to Include Paid Leave. Chris Dodd knows that far too
many workers who need the protections of the FMLA cannot afford to
take the time off. He will guarantee at least six weeks of paid
leave for the birth or adoption of a child, an elderly parent or
sick family member, or one’s own serious illness.

Increase Child Care and Elder
Care Assistance. Chris Dodd will help working parents balance
their commitments to work and family by making child care programs
more affordable and flexible. He will also increase assistance to
working Americans who care for their elderly relatives.

Safeguard Pension Plans from
Corporate Raiding and Protect Overtime Pay. Chris Dodd will
enhance federal oversight of pensions. Employees should never have
to forfeit their retirement security to pay for corporations’
mistakes. Chris Dodd will also fight to guarantee workers are
always compensated time-and-a-half for overtime work and prevent
employers from avoiding their obligations through unfair pay
period calculations.

Create Jobs and Bolster
Training Programs in Conjunction with Implementing a Comprehensive
Energy Policy. Chris Dodd will create a technical education
curriculum that trains a new generation of automobile mechanics,
electricians and construction workers to maintain energy-efficient
goods, from cars to homes. His energy plan will create jobs at
every stage, from production to maintenance.

Make Workplaces Safer: Chris
Dodd will promote efforts to enhance safety in the workplace that
all businesses can understand and comply with. He will also
protect workers who have been injured on the job from unfair
retaliation or loss of benefits of any kind.

Enforce Trade Laws at Home
and Abroad. Chris Dodd will insist that every trade agreement
America enters into is fair, by ensuring that workers in those
countries are guaranteed fair wages, fair working conditions, and
strong environmental protections. Above all, Dodd will insist U.S.
trading partners open their markets to American products.

The Dodd Plan to Strengthen
Retirement Security

Protect Social Security from
Privatization. Chris Dodd will never put Social Security, the
cornerstone of many Americans’ retirement plans, at risk by
subjecting it to the fluctuating and volatile financial markets.

Safeguard Pension Plans from
Corporate Raiding. Chris Dodd will enhance federal oversight of
pensions. Employees should never have to forfeit their retirement
security to pay for the mistakes of their employers.

Require Medicare to Negotiate
Drug Prices with Pharmaceutical Companies. Chris Dodd will ensure
that Medicare harnesses the enormous purchasing power of the
millions of seniors enrolled in the Part D Prescription Drug
Benefit to bargain for lower drug prices.

Eliminate the So-Called
“Doughnut Hole” in Medicare Coverage. Chris Dodd will protect
seniors from any coverage gaps to alleviate the financial hardship
of having to pay 100 percent of their medical bills at any point.

Expand Support for Long-Term
and Elder Care. Chris Dodd will provide incentives and support for
Americans who care for their elderly relatives. He will also
require insurance companies cover eligible long-term care
recipients.

Strengthen Home Energy
Assistance. Chris Dodd will fully support programs like LIHEAP –
that provides critically needed energy assistance – so that
seniors never have to choose between heating their homes and
paying for their food or medical bills.